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How to Learn (Not Just) a Language Quickly

I was never good at languages. Although my first language was Punjabi, I grew up as a monolingual English speaker. In grade school, I took French for many years with grades of mostly Bs and a few Cs. However, I managed to learn fairly fluent German in just a few months. As I look back on it, I realize that I applied methods that help in learning any subject, which is my reason for telling you what I did.

(Polka Dot)

It was 20 years ago in the eight-week language course at the Goethe Institute in Prien am Chiemsee, a beautiful resort town in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps (sadly, that school has since closed its doors). Upon arrival, we took placement tests to determine a suitable class. The instructors offered me the choice of starting in the highest of the three beginning levels or in the lowest of the three intermediate levels. (In college, I had studied a year of German, which I estimate to be comparable to four weeks of immersion in language school.)

I chose the intermediate class. For the first five weeks, I understood almost nothing that the teacher or the other students said. However, in the sixth week of the course, something amazing happened. Each day in that week, I understood more. By the end of the week, I understood all the class discussions. By the end of the course, I could hold decent conversations, understand movies and even argue in German.

The language stayed with me such that four years later, I was almost fined for carrying my camera on a visit to Germany. The customs officer thought that I lived in Germany and was trying to import it without paying the (at the time) high duty on electronic goods. Only a long discussion, and production of my British passport without a German residence stamp, convinced him that I was just a tourist with a camera who happened to speak German.

I had learned so much German by using one idea: errors. I was happy to make them. And I created useful ways to make still more.

No matter how many errors I made, I spoke only German for the duration of the course. I constantly read the newspaper and listened to the radio. In the first weeks, I hardly understood any news. Fortunately, my burden was lightened whenever George H.W. Bush (Bush the Elder) was on the news. And that happened often, for it was the summer of 1991 just before the invasion of Iraq. Bush’s dubbed German was, like his English, easy to understand (“We good, Saddam Hussein bad.”).

I also planned useful errors. I looked over the grammar tables, simplifying them so that I could speak quickly yet correctly enough, without much mental computation of endings. Here is an example: in German there are several forms of the, and the correct form depends on the function of the following noun in the sentence — as the subject, direct object, indirect object or genitive object. It also depends on the noun’s gender and number — whether masculine, neuter, feminine or plural (and gender is basically random: a table is masculine whereas a street is feminine).

The four case possibilities multiplied by the four gender/number possibilities make for 16 the possibilities. Several of the 16 possibilities are handled by the same form of the so there are only six different forms of the (der, die, das, dem, den, and des). But all of this figuring, even with only six different forms, is complicated and takes time. Thus, whenever I doubted the correct form, which was often, I would pick from the most common forms randomly.

Freed from long computations, I could speak quickly and have many conversations. They led to the strangest experience. In pubs, Germans would tell me that my grammar was perfect. At first I thought it was the strong German beer getting the better of their hearing, and I would explain some of my grammar crimes such as guessing the form of the or, in a related approximation, the ending on an adjective.

Eventually I realized what was happening. Like English, German usually places the syllable stress at the beginning of the word (HE-ro rather than he-RO). Talking quickly, the unstressed endings end up all sounding like a slurred -eh. But the native speaker, with the perfect language model in his or her head, hears the correct ending! He or she was then doubly willing to talk fast in return, and I got even more practice speaking and understanding German.

Back then, I did not realize the generality of this technique. Now I know, so I teach it in all my science and engineering courses as the method of lumping (for example, Chapter 3 of Street-Fighting Mathematics, which is a freely licensed book). This method is based on the idea that in order for our minds to manage the complexity of the world, we must throw away information skillfully — by discarding the least useful information first. The motto: “When the going gets tough, the tough… lower their standards.”

Twenty years later, it feels hard to imagine learning so efficiently again. First, having two small children, I don’t want to disappear for eight weeks. More fundamentally, I find it hard to imagine, now, letting go enough to err so happily. But I would like to find that courage again. And I offer this story to all my readers still bold and young at heart: May it help you learn what you have been dreaming to do!

Evie

October 24, 2011 @ 3:47pm

I studied for four weeks at the Geothe Institute too when I was a bit younger. I still tend to speak a bit of German when intoxiated. It was a great experience. Nothing new though, people have known this for years.

Jack

October 24, 2011 @ 4:05pm

You sound an awful lot like Benny, the Irish polyglot! http://www.fluentin3months.com/

Sanjoy Mahajan

October 25, 2011 @ 12:26am

Thank you for the pointer---a kindred spirit that I didn't know about!

m.m.

October 24, 2011 @ 4:52pm

Would that we all had the freedom to err so happily! Unfortunately, almost every school experience in this country is set up with negative reinforcement: if you make a mistake, it will cost you grade points. We train to NOT make mistakes.

Eric M. Jones

October 24, 2011 @ 5:51pm

My language is English. I could never do much with other languages. I have had the experience of finding my self hungry in foreign lands. It is amazing how much one's language improves when faced with the task of finding something to eat or drink in a foreign land. This is a great motivator.

Mark

October 24, 2011 @ 6:08pm

Reminds me of myself - 4 yrs of French yielded little compared to living in Germany while in the Army. 5 days of "head start to German" then lots of getting out there!

Pat Crofoot

October 24, 2011 @ 6:18pm

Memorize the 100 most commonly written words in the language.
Then memorize the 100 most commonly spoken words.

If you know these, really know them, then application is easier and your brain can keep up with the inputs.

nolanca

October 24, 2011 @ 6:28pm

I spent 10 years trying to learn german using traditional methods - classes, tutoring etc but without success. But I went to work in Italy knowing NO italian and spent three months in a lab with a technician who spoke only italian and had no interest in speaking english. during this period I shared an apartment with a french-speaking belgian. There were no formal italian classes available. I was getting nowhere, awfully slowly. Then I went back to Ireland for christmas to wrestle with the question of whether to press on or not. I decided to go back to Italy after the holiday and suddenly, everything started clicking. The trick is not to be afraid to make mistakes and not to be afraid to look stupid. I can do that fluently now in Italian but not yet in my mother tongue.

Thomas

October 24, 2011 @ 7:39pm

being European (actually German) I understand the mechanics behind it (as we have to deal naturally here with many different languages).
The language brain rarely works like a lookup table system, but more like a chaotic net. Memorizing tables of declination and conjugations only satisfies the teacher interest in perfect grammar, but rarely help you learning a language.
As an example - during my university we had several foreign students for a year. Many of them started with their school-German trying to construct perfect sentences (obviously still making mistakes). As this was slow and frustrating many sooner or later retreated into only socializing with their own language group (spanish, english, italian, etc...)
One was different, he started talking and talked without break or even caring about grammar lime a waterfall. He dropped out of all language classes and hung around pubs. Guess - who was speaking fluently at the end of the year ?
Another group learning the language was the ones which got a local boy-/girlfriend ;-)

Read more...

carlosmx37

October 24, 2011 @ 10:20pm

the problem with the english learners in many countries,is that We expect first to have a total mastering of the language,and then start contacting foreigners.But if We were rated by our teachers as "middle level",and fail to get a job where "100 % fluency of English",.We are afraid to try reaching visitors to our countries.
excellent advise Thomas,respect getting a local girlfriend!
It is said that "pillow talk" turns basic speakers into masters!
juan carlos garcia
tecamac,mexico
"mi casa es tu casa"

MM Jones

October 24, 2011 @ 7:21pm

Very interesting. Just to clarify: did you eventually learn all the correct genders and endings of each noun? Or was this never important and you still guess to this day? Was ignoring these rules and speaking rapidly a step towards fluency, or an end point?

Sanjoy Mahajan

October 24, 2011 @ 11:06pm

Now I know the genders reasonably well, and I know the declension table automatically now, so I am mostly accurate in choosing the endings.

However, I still regularly get stuck on a few points. For example, whether to use the accusative ("direct object") or dative ("indirect object") endings after a few prepositions that can be followed by either case. The choice depends (roughly speaking) on whether there is motion in a direction. In English we sometimes make this distinction by changing from "in" to "into", e.g. I am in the house vs. I am going into the house. In German, both examples use "in", but the first example, without motion, uses the dative ending on the "the"; and the second example, with motion, uses the accusative ending. In clear cases like that, I make the correct choice automatically.

But there are many figurative or weaker senses of motion, such as klopfen (to knock). Do you knock on the door or onto the door?! My ear sort of tells me that, in German, it's "onto" (accusative). But I don't know what the proper rule is (and would be glad to learn it!).

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Everson

October 24, 2011 @ 8:08pm

I spent about 4 months in Germany (near Cologne) last year, in about 5 different trips. I was lucky to be in a hotel where I could socialize with the crew after hours, so out of fun, they taught me a few nasty sentences.

I found out that if I had the sentences written down to me, I could understand the meaning of the words better and then I started to replace words with different random words, just for fun. I would use items from the menu or signs around me. My friends would laugh, but they've noticed that I was quickly learning, so they started writing down more sentences.

I named that Pirate German. After 3 weeks, I could order beer, food, praise Rudi Völler (es gibt nur ein Rudi Völler) and curse like a Pirate.

After 3 trips, it seems that they ran out of cursing. So they started teaching me more useful expressions.

On my last trip, I could do some basic shopping and small talk with locals. I could talk to taxi drivers about directions and whereabouts. I could hang around any bierhaus and get food and beer, plus talk to the patrons. I even managed some trips to different cities alone.

I think that when you are not pressured to deliver it perfectly, you learn more and quicker.

Read more...

AaronS

October 24, 2011 @ 8:59pm

I have heard that German is the easiest language to learn. Be that as it may, I was enlightened by your experience of sticking with the class, even though you did not really understand, until things "clicked."

I'm betting THAT was the key--just hanging in there, all those words circulating in your head, until--viola!--it started coming together.

Possible?

Sanjoy Mahajan

October 25, 2011 @ 12:23am

There was a sentence in my original draft that I had cut out: "From the constant exposure to German, most of which I did not but wanted to understand, I fell asleep every night with a headache. And that seemed right; it felt essential to the learning."

So, I completely agree with you that letting the words flow over me, and hanging in there, was important in learning well.

Dmoloney

October 25, 2011 @ 7:19pm

"I was never good at languages."

Punjabi, english and German with a bit of french...........from where i stand thats pretty damn good.

Sanjoy Mahajan

October 25, 2011 @ 11:13pm

Alas, the Punjabi is almost gone. When I was young, the reigning dogma was that being bilingual was bad, so my parents stopped speaking Punjabi to me when I was around 3. I still remember most foods in Punjabi, and for many spices I still have to translate into English because I grew up hearing them in Punjabi.

French I actually can speak reasonably well, but no thanks to my school French. Rather, it was similar to how I learned German. Maybe I'll write a blog entry about that too, in case there are ideas in there that others can use in their own learning.

Dave

October 26, 2011 @ 6:11pm

What is a "freely licensed book"? It didn't look very free to me.

Sanjoy Mahajan

October 29, 2011 @ 12:06am

The book is available as a PDF file from MIT Press's website (the easiest way to find that page is from streetfightingmath.com). The file, like the paper book, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial ShareAlike license (CC-BY-NC-SA). That means anyone is free to distribute it or to make their own versions and distribute them, as long as others get the same rights (the "ShareAlike") and as long as the distribution is noncommercial. Share away!

(To be complete, I should add that some people in the free-software community don't think that this license qualifies as a free license because it does not allow commercial redistribution.)

I hope this helps.

Jared Romey

October 29, 2011 @ 1:52pm

You hit on a great point here and it applies to other languages as well: the slurred endings all sounding alike.

In a conversation you may often drop an ending (I do this in Spanish a lot) and it doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence. It wouldn't work for the written language, but as you pointed out, for the spoken language it makes people think you are more fluent than you actually are and keeps you from getting hung up on verb conjugations.

Fun post Sanjoy, you explained well the natural advances you can make in a language just by jumping in and making mistakes.